信息流动原则在托福阅读句子插入题中的运用

信息流动原则在托福阅读句子插入题中的运用

摘要：下面两段话说明的都是同一件事情。甚至两段每一句话分开来看所陈述的内容也相同。但读起来，例2却要比例1流畅易懂。

首先，来看下面两段话。

Example 1: Every Tuesday, Samantha takes her dog to the dog park near her house. The city of San José maintains the dog park in an effort to promote healthy lifestyles. The city of San José sustains several dog parks throughout the city.

Example 2: Every Tuesday, Samantha takes her dog to the dog park nearby her house. The dog park is maintained in an effort to promote healthy lifestyles by the city of San José. The city of San José sustains several dog parks throughout the city.

上面两段话说明的都是同一件事情。甚至两段每一句话分开来看所陈述的内容也相同。但读起来，例2却要比例1流畅易懂。

之所以如此，是因为例2符合了信息流动的原则。即在一段话中，每一句话应该遵循旧信息在前，新信息在后的原则。越是符合这个原则，一个篇章就越流畅、越易懂。而违背了这一原则，文章就会变得突兀，不连贯。

我们来分析一下这两个例子。两段的第一句话相同，均为Every Tuesday, Samantha takes her dog to the dog park nearby her house。当读者读第一句时，该句话的内容对读者而言全都是新信息。但当读者读到第二句时，这句话里的信息就变成了旧信息。

再看第二句话。两个例子在第二句话的信息排列上出现了不同。例 1 仍以新信息The city of San José开头，却将旧信息the dog park放在了后面。违背了旧信息在前，新信息在后这一原则，读起来十分突兀。而例2的第二句话则以旧信息the dog park 开头，新

信息the city of San José结尾。符合了信息流动的原则，因而一二句的衔接要连贯许多。同时，第二句结尾的新信息到了第三句又作为旧信息出现在了开头，引出了新信息throughout the city。这样，例2全段都符合了新旧信息的流动原则，读起来流畅自然。

总结起来，如果以ABCD…代表第一次出现的信息，A'B'C'D'…代表ABCD信息在后文中的复现。这些信息通常要遵循AA'BB'CC'DD'…的排列规则。当然，现实中由于各种因素，作者出于各种考虑，新旧信息在一句话中有时并不一定严格按照旧信息在前新信息在后的排列顺序。但在绝大多数情况下，同一信息的相关几个句子应排列在一起。

我们来看看如何运用这一原则来帮助我们解托福阅读中的句子插入题。

例1.

Paragraph 6: Ecologists are especially interested to know what factors contribute to the resilience of communities because climax communities all over the world are being severely damaged or destroyed by human activities. The destruction caused by the volcanic explosion of Mount St. Helens, in the northwestern United States, for example, pales in comparison to the destruction caused by humans. We need to know what aspects of a community are most important to the community’s resistance to destruction, as well as its recovery.

13.Look at the four squares that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage. 2

In fact, damage to the environment by humans is often much more severe than damage by natural events and processes.

Where would the sentence best fit? Click on a square to add the sentence to the passage.

首先，看需要插入的句子。句子的开头是damage by humans，结尾是damage by natural events and processes。根据信息流动的原则，开头的damage by humans应该是旧信息，应该在前一句话中提到，而damage by natural events and processes应该是新信息，应该在下一句话中提到。

因此，答案只能是2，插入句的开头damage by humans对应前一句的“climax communities all over the world are being severely damaged or destroyed by human activities.”，插入句的结尾damage by natural events and processes对应“The destruction caused by the volcanic explosion of Mount St. Helens”。插入句放在此处不但符合了信息流动的原则，而且与下一句形成了观点和举例的论证关系，因此完全正确。

再看一道难度较大的句子插入题。

例2.

Paragraph1: The periodic table is a chart that reflects the periodic recurrence of chemical and physical properties of the elements when the elements are arranged in order of increasing atomic number (the number of protons in the nucleus). It is a monumental scientific achievement, and its development illustrates the essential interplay between observation, prediction, and testing required for scientific progress. In the 1800's scientists were searching for new elements. By the late 1860's more than 60 chemical elements had been identified, and much was known about their descriptive chemistry. Various proposals were put forth to arrange the elements into groups based on similarities in chemical and physical properties. The next step was to recognize a connection between group properties (physical or chemical similarities) and atomic mass (the measured mass of an individual atom of